Murder case advances against illegal immigrant

Miles away from flashing police lights, Abeil Javier Vazquez watched as his friend cleaned a bloody knife beneath a gushing faucet, he testified Tuesday.

“Then he went to the woods, down to the river,” Vazquez, 19, of Lyndhurst, said in court. “He tried to hide it under a rock in the river, but then he went up onto a hill. He tossed it, threw it into the woods.”

The testimony came during a preliminary hearing for David Luna Sanchez, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant charged along with Vazquez in the summertime killing of Eduardo “Piku” Herrera, 38, at 260 N. Commerce Ave.

Judge William B. Heatwole ruled Tuesday that Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos presented enough evidence to send the second-degree murder case to grand jury.

Vazquez testified he and Sanchez fled Virginia shortly after the knife cleaning.

Almost 10 days later, the men were arrested by Florida police in Putnam County — caught speeding in a primer black Ford Taurus Waynesboro police had sought, authorities said.

Dressed in a striped jail jumpsuit, Sanchez wore silver shackles and a tuft of clean-cut black hair in court. Sitting next to an interpreter, he stared at the ground and listened to testimony by Herrera’s girlfriend, Tammy Painter.

According to Painter, she and Herrera spent most of June 27 cooking outside their apartment. She said she noticed Sanchez standing in the parking lot with friends throughout the day.

“We walked up the street,” Painter said. “Piku said they were getting ready to jump him.”

His hunch wasn’t new.

In December 2008, Waynesboro police arrested Sanchez and two others for beating Herrera with a baseball bat. They were later convicted.

Painter testified the sun was setting as they walked back home. As they passed through an alley, Sanchez was standing nearby. The men yelled at each other, she said.

“And what did you see happen?” Camblos asked.

In the still courtroom, Painter sniffled on the stand.

“Someone get her a Kleenex,” the judge said.

“I’m sorry,” Painter said.

“Don’t apologize,” Heatwole replied, pausing court.

Gathered, Painter continued.

“Piku swung at him and David went down on the ground, and David came up,”
she said. “The next thing I seen was blood. [Piku] put his hand on his chest and took off running.”

Following, she ran through the alley and toward North Delphine Avenue. Behind her, Sanchez scrambled into the driver’s seat of the car and sped away.

“I followed [Herrera] around and found him on the road,” she said. “He was nothing but blood. I took my shirt off and put it on the hole in his chest.”

“And he died there on North Delphine?” Camblos asked.

“He died in my arms,” she cried.

Vazquez testified he saw the blood as well, coming from Herrera and on the shirt of Sanchez.

Defense Attorney Scott T. Hansen, of Harrisonburg, argued Sanchez fought in self defense.

“There’s no disputing what occurred in the sense that a man died,” Hansen said. “I believe at worst this was mutual combat — at best, for my client,
an incident where a man threw a punch and started a fight.”

Hansen stepped from behind a table and turned to Heatwole.

“What matters is Piku instigated the fight, brought it about, saw it to its fruition, and got much more than he thought he would,” he said.

Vazquez testified Sanchez wanted to flee back to Mexico.

Sanchez might have already been there at the time of the murder, were it not for a deportation mix-up, authorities have said.

 The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency failed earlier this year to deport Sanchez, authorities said.

An investigation by The News Virginian revealed ICE officials planned to
deport Sanchez and his accomplices after the 2008 beating of Herrera, but that Middle River Regional Jail officials never received a faxed detainer request to hold Sanchez.

ICE officials said an agent faxed the document to the jail.

The accomplices were deported.

Herrera, from Puerto Rico, lived in West Virginia and Waynesboro since 2005, relatives said. He enjoyed surfing and sports and making friends laugh.

Sanchez is scheduled to appear before a grand jury Jan. 10. A preliminary hearing for Vazquez is also in January.